Electrocity
How is energy generated? How much does it cost? How does it affect the environment?
These are extremely important topics today, and are no longer just the domain of engineers and industry experts.
ElectroCity was developed to increase student awareness of alternate energy sources and the general terms and concepts of the industry and the dilemmas that go along with them. Electrocity also offers extensive resources to help educatorsincorporate the game into their teaching. Suitable for: Grade 5 - Year 11
Vanished
An environmental disaster has taken place on Planet Earth and we need your help.
The Smithsonian Institution and the MIT Education Arcade invite all scientists-in-training ages 10 ½ to 14 to log onto VANISHED and help decipher clues that unravel one of the world’s biggest mysteries. An online/offline interactive event, VANISHED is an eight-week episodic quest that will transform you into principal scientific investigators who must collaborate to find the answers. You will race against time as you solve games, puzzles, and other online challenges; visit real museums; collect samples from in and around your homes; and even partner with some of the Smithsonian’s world renowned scientists and investigators, to help unlock the true secrets of this catastrophe—before it’s too late.
Moonbase Alpha
In Moonbase Alpha, you assume the exciting role of an astronaut working to further human expansion and research. Returning from a research expedition, you witness a meteorite impact that cripples the life support capability of the settlement. With precious minutes ticking away, you and your team must repair and replace equipment in order to restore the oxygen production to the settlement. Moonbase Aplha has been designed to engage students in STEM concepts. NASA has many resources available to support Moonbase Alpha including virtual labs and planetery learning suites. Suitable for: Grade 5 - Year 11
PowerUp
Save Planet Helios from ecological devastation! PowerUp is a free, online, multiplayer game that allows students to experience the excitement and the diversity of modern engineering! Playing the game, students work together in teams to investigate the rich, 3D game environment and learn about the environmental disasters that threaten the game world and its inhabitants. PowerUp also offers extensive resources to help educators incorporate the game into teaching and learning. Suitable for: Grade 5 - Year 11
Immune Attack
You must navigate a nanobot through a 3D environment of blood vessels and connective tissue in an attempt to save an ailing patient by retraining her non-functional immune cells. Along the way, you will learn about the biological processes that enable macrophages and neutrophils – white blood cells – to detect and fight infections. Suitable for: Grade 3 - Year 10 Resources: Teacher Guide - http://www.fas.org/immuneattack/teachersguide
SimFarm SimFarm puts players in charge of building up the land, placing the buildings, buying and selling livestock and planting crops. A weather and season system are in place as well, presenting the same kind of challenges found in a real-world farm. As with SimCity, there are disasters that can wreak havoc on the player's farm. The game package also included a teachers guide to teaching with Sim Farm with black line masters for photo copying for the class and a users manual.Suitable for: Grade 3 - Year 9 Resources: SimFarm Educator resources - www.naaee.org/npeee/**SimFarm**v1.pdf
Incredible Machine
The Incredible Machine is a wacky invention/puzzle game that lets you construct cause and effect contraptions with working pulleys, levers, conveyor belts, motors, balloons and more. Use your creative ingenuity to construct a variety of different machines that create specified effects. Suitable for: Grade 3 - Year 10 Resources: Incredible Machine 2 - http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/395/Incredible+Machine+2,+The.html
Incredible Machine 3 - http://www.soft25.com/review.asp?id=4146
Electric Box
Electric Box is a puzzle game that could be used in teaching electricity and electric power. The premise is simple - connect power from the power supply to the set target. Suitable for: Grade 5 - Year 9
Genomics Digital Lab
It is designed to teach high school students about biology including photosynthesis, respiration, transcription and translation.
Genomics Digital Lab was designed to be easily used in the classroom, and provides teachers with lesson plans, curriculum alignments, quizzes, worksheets. Teachers can also monitor their students’ progress online, in real-time. Suitable for: Year 7 - 12 Resources: Teaching with GDL - http://www.vivetechnologies.com/gdl/teaching.html
West Point Bridge Designer
Design a Virtual Bridge and learn about Civil Engineering. This bridge designer software is free for download. It is probably the most comprehensive and realistic software freely available. Students can learn many aspects of forces, material properties and design loads.
Suitable for: Year 9 - 12
Resources: West Point Bridge Design Contest - http://bridgecontest.usma.edu/
MeCheM
A game for middle schoolers learning chemistry and the properties of elements. Players select elements and strategies to equip their mechs with armor, batteries, capacitors and weapons, and then battle the Mechs to see which is the stronger. Suitable for: Year 7-10
Racing Academy
Racing Academy is a racing game built on an advanced physics simulation engine intended to support an online community of learners’ increased familiarity with engineering concepts. For educational purposes, the game's physics are as true-to-life as possible (as opposed to being optimized for the fun of the game.) Suitable for: Grade 5 - Year 11
SuperCharged
The game places students in a three dimensional enviroment where they must navigate a spaceship by controlling the electric charge of the ship, placing charged particles around the space. Students must carefully plan their trajectory through each level by tracing the field lines that emmanate from charged objects, and in the process of doing so, develop a more hands on understanding of how charged particles interact. Suitable for: Year 9-12 Resources: Learning Physics with Digital Simulation Games - http://www.educationarcade.org/files/articles/Supercharged/SuperchargedResearch.pdf
Kinetic City
A program of standards-based online science games and other activities. Suitable for: Grades 3-5. Resources: Kinetic City Teacher Resources - http://www.kcmtv.com/
NanoQuest
Discover that size really matters in NanoQuest, an epic 3D adventure through the tiny world of nanotechnology. The new version includes the Virus Attack Bonus Game which takes Jack and Orla on an adventure inside an animal cell. Suitable for: Grade 5 - Year 10 Resources: Teacher Resources - http://www.nanoquest.ie/teach.html
MoonShield
MOONSHIELD is a managerial and technological strategy game, which propels the player into the near future, where he must use THALES technologies to defend and protect the Earth from a wash of meteorites that is threatening civilisation. Suitable for: Grade 5 - Year 9
Jason Science
JASON games and digital labs are designed with the practical realties of the classroom in mind. Teachers can search for games and labs by state standards in the JASON Mission Center Web site, where you will also find worksheets and handouts. Games include Operation: Resilient Planet, Coaster Creator, StormTracker and a host of other mini labs. Suitable for: Grade 5 - Year 11 Resources: Curriculum Guides - http://www.jason.org/public/whatis/curr.aspx
IBM CityOne
CityOne offers players the opportunity to optimize banking, retail, energy and water solutions via an online, sim-style game in which the player is tasked with guiding industries within a city through a series of missions. Players will make decisions to improve the city by attaining revenue and profit goals, increasing customers’ and citizens’ satisfaction, and making the environment greener with a limited budget. In parallel, players will learn how the components of business process management, service reuse, cloud and collaborative technologies make organizations in the city system more agile. Suitable for: Year 7-12
Phage Wars
Spread your parasites in this fast pace, strategy game. The goal is to overtake all other parasites and become the "Dominant Species". Learn to master each parasite effectively and infect all forms of cellular life. Suitable for: Grade 5 - Year 11 Resources: Phage Wars 2 - http://armorgames.com/play/4013/phage-wars-2
Anatomy Arcade
Anatomy Arcade makes basic human anatomy come ALIVE through awesome free flash games, interactives and videos.
Anatomy Arcade is perfect for the novice teenager in the classroom, right through to students and professionals of health care looking for a fun way to revise.
Suitable for: Grade 5 - Year 11
Cisco Games Arcade
A series of games to teach about binary numbers and all things associated with computer networking. Suitable for: Year 9-12
MIT GAMBIT Game Lab
A host of great games here including Waker. Waker is a puzzle/platform game set in the world of a child's broken dream. As the Waker, the player uses both mind and reflexes to solve puzzles, creating platforms to form a safe path through the dream worlds. Forming the paths, however, is the trick - it is up to the player to figure out how to create each path, and to manipulate the Waker and the world to travel safely through each level.Both use identical gameplay to expose players to two basic physics concepts, requiring players to manipulate the graphical representations of displacement and velocity in order to navigate through the game. Suitable for: All ages
Cellcraft
Build a cell, fight off viruses, survive harsh worlds, and save the Platypus species!
This game was made possible by a grant from the Digital Media & Learning Competition. The goal was to make a truly educational game that was also genuinely fun to play. We hope students, teachers, and gamers will all enjoy the game, and encourage you to visit www.cellcraftgame.com, which will soon have an open forum and eventually downloadable teacher materials. Suitable for: Year 7 - 12
Powder Toy
The Powder Toy is a Physics simulator designed to give students a better understanding of how substances and elements react with each other and to other comounds or heat. Suitable for: Grade 1 - Year 8 Resources: Cheat codes - http://www.cheatbook.de/files/powdergame.htm
Lego Digital Designer
This is LEGO Digital Designer. The program that lets you build with LEGO bricks on your computer. Suitable for: All ages
Tranformice
Transformice is a multiplayer flash game created by Melibellule and Tigrounette, where you control a mouse whose goal is to try and return with the cheese faster than all of the other mice. You are assisted by a (point based) Shaman, who has the ability to summon various physics-based objects to help the mice get the cheese and get back safely.
TryEngineering
Sometimes the best way to understand what engineers do is to try your hand at it! The following several engineering games give you a first hand try at the problem solving skills engineers employ every day! Suitable for: All ages
Cool-it
Cool-it is an interactive learning game teaching about cryogenics.
Cool-It is a simulation game that teaches the principles of heat transfer in cryogenic situations in a graduate-level engineering course.
This game places the student in the role of a mechanical engineer solving real world design problems for the US navy and NASA. Success and Failure are the difference between life and death! Suitable for: Year 10-12
Science simulations
A nice list of science simulations - from physics to biology. Suitable for: All ages
First Science Games
A nice collection of mini games covering all areas of science Suitable for: All ages
GATSCAR GATSCAR is a unique tool for mechatronic engineers apprenticeship. It is a Serious Game that makes automotive mechatronics come alive! Through the eyes of the central character Jack the user experiences a digital car workshop, a world of racing and friendship. By explaining turbochargers and transmissions interactively, GATSCAR easily combines gaming with learning. Suitable for: Year 7-12
Powder Toy
The Powder Toy is a desktop version of the classic 'falling sand' physics sandbox game, it simulates air pressure and velocity as well as heat! Suitable for: Year 7-12
History of Biology History of Biology is an interactive, online science scavenger hunt where students experience the history of biology, through the people and the impact their discoveries had on, and continues to have on, our culture, society, politics, economics, and ethics. Suitable for: Year 7-12
Build a Cell With this interactive, build an animal, plant, bacterial and fungal cell and watch it come alive! Explore the similarities and differences of the cells all at once. Learn about each organelle and apply your knowledge through real life case studies. Suitable for: Year 7-12
SpongeLab Biology
Learn about the history of biology, people and events, and the impact discoveries have had on society, ethics, politics and culture, then and now - through a fun, interactive scavenger hunt!
Become a science assistant and navigate through a labyrinth of clues, objects, and internet sites to figure out why Dr. Shyre, a renowned scientist, has disappeared. Hidden among the real historical events in biology, find clues and unlock puzzles to find the secrets of his most important and controversial research ever. Suitable for: Year 7-12
Power of Research In Power of Research players can engage in "virtual" health research projects, by performing microscopy, protein isolation and DNA experiments, publishing research results, participating in conferences, managing high tech equipment and staff or request funding – all tasks of real researchers. The decisive game elements are communication, collaboration and competition: players can compete against each other in real time or collaborate to become a successful virtual researcher, win scientific awards or become the leader of a research institute. Suitable for: Year 9-12
Soda Play
Includes the Soda Constructor, a Java applet that animates two dimensional models made out of masses and springs. Suitable for: All ages
Enigmo 2
Enigmo 2 is a 3D puzzle game where you construct mechanisms to direct lasers, plasma, and water to toggle switches, deactivate force-fields, and eventually get them to their final destination. The original Enigmo was the most unique game that Pangea Software ever created, and Enigmo 2 takes the concept to a whole new dimension with much more complex environments and all-new devices. The faster you complete each of the 50 levels, the more bonus points you will receive!
In addition to the 50 levels that come with Enigmo, there is also a built-in level editor which allows you to create your own games that you can share with friends or post on the web for the world to play.
Suitable for: All ages
Virtual Bacterial ID Lab
The purpose of the lab is to familiarize you with the science and techniques used to identify different types of bacteria based on their DNA sequence. Not long ago, DNA sequencing was a time-consuming, tedious process. With readily available commercial equipment and kits, it is now routine. The techniques used in this lab are applicable in a wide variety of settings, including scientific research and forensic labs. Suitable for: Year 11&12
Resources: HHMI Virtual Labs - http://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/vlabs/
CSI: The Experience
The CSI Web Adventure will put you in the shoes of a rookie crime scene invesitgator. You will need the help of fellow CSI agents. Suitable for: Grade 5 - Year 9
Science Museum Games
A collection of mini-games related to diferent areas of science Suitable for: All ages
Ozee
In this physic based platformer, you can interact with the world however you want. Join Ozee in his jurney and explore exciting land of puzzles. Suitable for: All ages
Plasma Pong Plasma Pong is a mesmerizing freeware title by Steve Taylor, a student at George Mason University. It combines a cutting-edge realtime fluid dynamics simulation with the game structure of pong.
Red Remover
Remove the red shapes without the green ones falling off the screen. This starts out easy but after level 10 things get a little more interesting… Suitable for: All ages Resources: Red Remover 2 - http://www.redremover2.com/
Science Pirates Science Pirates: The Curse of Brownbeard is a 3D educational computer game that communicates food safety knowledge in an environment of scientific exploration. Suitable for: Grade 5 - 9
Titanium Chef
Titanium Chef has been designed to help you teach about Food Guide's to your students. It's a Flash-based online game developed specifically for Canadian children in grades 6 to 8. Resources: Teacher Materials - http://titaniumchef.ca/en/pages/for-teachers/
Planet Arcade
This arcade is a portal to games and interactive activities focused on ocean and air themes. It highlights the science and the activities of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and other agencies and organizations promoting environmental stewardship.
AstroEngineer AstroEngineer: Moon Rover is the first of what will be a suite of games to teach STEM content to Middle School and High School students in both formal and informal learning environments.
Science Simulations
A great collection of science simulations covering biology, physics, chemistry, geology, astronomy, anatomy and much more! Suitable for: All ages
Build a Prairie The prairie is one of North America's great ecosystems and a vital habitat for many plants and animals. Over 98% of the prairie has been lost in the past 150 years—but some people are trying to bring it back, hectare by hectare. Restoring a prairie is a great challenge, requiring knowlege of biology, ecology, climatology, and even economics. Suitable for: All ages
You Make Me Sick You Make Me Sick! is a rich, interactive introduction to the exciting world of pathogens. YMMS! is first in a series of life science games we are developing with special education expert Dr. Matthew Marino of Washington State University. All the games in the series combine Universal Design for Learning concepts with research-based game design principles to improve students' understanding of complex science vocabulary and concepts. While the UDL features support students with learning disabilities and others who struggle with reading, the game is engaging, motivating, and effective for all students. Suitable for: All ages
DESQ Learning Games DESQ is a leading producer of interactive learning content for public sector, broadcast, corporate and educational publishing clients. We design and develop compelling and robust courses, games and training materials.
Resources: DoomED - Half-Life 2 mod (chemistry/science) http://www.desq.co.uk/doomed/download.aspx
Jimi Rock: Under Sea Adventures
Jimirock.com is an "edutainment" platform, teaching children about marine biology on an introductory level while combining the learning experience with a fun and entertaining theme that will aspire to compete with the most popular children's online entertainment sites in the world. Many parents actively seek out ways to educate their children on issues surrounding the ocean and ecology. Jimi Rock will give these children an interactive platform filled with games and activities designed to increase their knowledge of aquatic life.
Alice and Bob in Wonderland Are you ready to question reality? Join Alice & Bob in nine fun-filled, animated adventures as they wonder about the world around us. Discover with them that it is sometimes the simplest questions that lead us to the most profound insights into the nature of our amazing universe. Be forewarned - these episodes may turn some of your ideas of reality upside down!
Physics Games
Mini-games for physics. A nice collection.
Sprace While having fun fulfilling these missions, the player learns the concepts of elementary particles such as leptons and quarks, the composition of hadrons (mainly protons and neutrons), the concept of color charge and the strong interaction that occurs between mesons and baryons, the decay particles and notions of a subatomic scale. It is worth mentioning that this game was developed in Brazil, sponsored by SPRACE and with financial support from CNPq through the announcement of the "Project Support for Dissemination and Popularization of Science and Technology." The game was produced by the Brazilian Consultancy Company Summa Technology Business and developed by Black Widow Games Brazil.
Portal: The Flash Version
Portal: The Flash Version includes over 40 challenging, portals thinking levels, and everything's included, in 2d - energy balls, cubes, turrets and even the famous crusher from the trailer. The game also includes a console to mess around with after finishing the game, or just being frustrated by thinking with portals! Inspired by Valve's popular Portal game, this has links and application to a host of mathematical and physical concepts.
Suitable for: All Ages
CaduceusCaduceus is an online puzzle and adventure game that takes players to a mythical world where they must find a cure for a plague that’s sweeping the land. Players of all ages, but especially those in middle school, can “game for good” as part of the Generation Cures project, learning about science as they help to raise money for critical pediatric medical research. Resources: http://www.generationcures.org/education
SpaceChem
SpaceChem is an obscenely addictive, design-based puzzle game about building machines and fighting monsters in the name of science! Take on the role of a Reactor Engineer working for SpaceChem, the leading chemical synthesizer for frontier colonies. Construct elaborate factories to transform raw materials into valuable chemical products! Streamline your designs to meet production quotas and survive encounters with the sinister threats that plague SpaceChem. Suitable for: All ages
Auditorium Auditorium challenges you to manipulate the flow of light to illuminate a series of sensors. You are helped in your task by tools that allow you to bend and split the light beams. The graphics and inspired music make this a browser gaming experience not to be missed. You will have to pay to play the full game but the demo we link to offers a good few hours of entertainment. Auditorium can be played here.
Suitable for: All ages
Aubital
Aubital is an atmospheric cross between a physics game and a platformer. You roll an illuminated ball around darkly lit levels, trying to open doors and ascend elevators, with the intention of getting to the exit. Suitable for: All ages
Incredibots
Build your own robot by drawing wheels, motors, joints etc, and then pilot your robot through hundreds of challenges.
Gravitee 2
A gravity-based physics game that explores the concepts of gravity in different situations.
Ludwig
How can you motivate students to really learn their subjects - and actually use them as well? Ludwig is a new physics game on the topic of renewable energies for adventurers aged 11 years and older.
Planet Hunters
Planet Hunters, the latest project from the Zooniverse, is a citizen science project. Participants help us sieve through data taken by the NASA Kepler space mission. These data consist of brightness measurements, or "light curves," taken every thirty minutes for more than 150,000 stars. Users search for possible transit events - a brief dip in brightness that occurs when a planet passes in front of the star - with the goal of discovering a planet (hence the name "Planet Hunters"). Suitable for: Physics/Science classes of all ages
Science Supremo Students take on the role of scientists working in modern drug development, taking a new drug through clinical trials to assess its effectiveness in treating tuberculosis. The game is structured to enable groupwork in the classroom, collaborative problem solving and discussion, and gives the teacher a central role as a ‘learning croupier’, enabling a variety of teaching methods and lesson plans to be used, in exploring what it means to be a scientist.
SimPhysics Four interactive games (SimEnergy1, SimEnergy2, SimSpace, SimSound) are now available to use in your teaching of energy and space to 13-16 year olds. These games are designed to help students to engage with the physics they need to use to solve problems and win the games.Resources: Teaching notes & Lesson Plans - http://www.iop.org/education/teacher/resources/sim/page_41572.html
DoomEd
DoomEd is a single-player Half-Life 2 mod, first-person shooter learning game that combines science and history with FPS action, taking players through the horror of bio-terrorism and WW2 chemical experimentation gone wrong. A project by the University of Wolverhampton.
Manufactoria
A game about programming robots to solve particular challenges.
Suitable for: All ages
Dragon Breeder
Deep within the membrane of a giant egg, an ancient and dangerous creature lies dormant - a dragon!
Learn about genetic inheritance as you breed dragon species, complete phenotype missions and meet monstrous creatures in a cloud-hopping sky world! Become the dragon master by breeding all types of dragons.
Suitable for:
ClearLab Arcade
The ClearLab Game Arcade uses the Sandstone service to deliver games to your browser and is currently in beta. Includes games Slot Car Physics, Atomic Hero, Cell Saver and Factor Madness. Suitable for: All ages
Power of Research
Become a famous researcher in "Power of Research." Research different topics through exciting research projects. Gain special skills and knowledge in nine different main research areas (like Brain, Paediatrics, ...). Become a leader in your institute and lead it to international ranks. The game is 100% free and needs no prior knowledge
N-Squad
An adventure game about alcohol and body systems. Funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
Mission Biotech
Mission Biotech is an immersive, computer-based game that offers players opportunities to solve challenging problems through the application of biotechnology.
MedMyst
An interactive learning adventure, with accompanying classroom activities and magazines, that teaches microbiology. Funded through the National Center for Research Resources and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
Reconstructors
Three independent adventure games that teach about the science behind drugs of abuse. Funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Danger Zone
Jessie and her friends need your help! They have become very sick with a foodborne illness and you've been asked to solve the outbreak! What pathogen did they contract? Which food was the culprit? And where did these teens go wrong when they made food for their dinner party?
A team of characters including a doctor, epidemiologist, librarian, and Jessie herself will help you along the way. Collect and test samples, make notes, and test your knowledge.
Science Game Centre The goal of the Science Game Center is to demonstrate to teachers, scientists, museums, and parents the myriad ways games can be used to improve education in math and science. The Science Game Center will provide a place where users can describe their experiences with math and science games, gather information on game strengths and weaknesses, and share tips on how to use games to help students reach their educational goals.
Rumble Blocks
RumbleBlocks is an educational game designed to teach K-3 students about the physics of building stable structures. The game was built by a collaborative team of educational researchers and entertainment technology design students at Carnegie Mellon University and Sesame Workshop.
The game teaches basic concepts of stability and balance, as well as engineering and problem-solving skills, that come from the National Research Council’s framework for K-12 Science education and the ASSET Science curricular units on stability and motion. Suitable for: K-3
airECONsim airECONsim is a "long" market game for teaching industrial organization. It highlights microeconomics notions such as marginal/average cost, variable/sunk costs, short run/long run costs, price elasticity of demand, demand shocks, impact of production capacity on price competition, oligopoly/monopoly and the logic behind competition, price discrimination, ... (also includes advanced features such as auctions for capacity or CO2 permits, mergers and takeovers, differentiation, ...) Suitable for: K-10 and above
Economics Games This site offers several free multiplayer online games for teaching economics (market games, prisoner's dilemma, public goods, Cournot and Stackelberg....). The scenario of the main game is described in this pedagogical guide Students play with their smartphones, tablets or laptops. Suitable for: K-10 and above
How is energy generated? How much does it cost? How does it affect the environment?
These are extremely important topics today, and are no longer just the domain of engineers and industry experts.
ElectroCity was developed to increase student awareness of alternate energy sources and the general terms and concepts of the industry and the dilemmas that go along with them. Electrocity also offers extensive resources to help educatorsincorporate the game into their teaching.
Suitable for: Grade 5 - Year 11
An environmental disaster has taken place on Planet Earth and we need your help.
The Smithsonian Institution and the MIT Education Arcade invite all scientists-in-training ages 10 ½ to 14 to log onto VANISHED and help decipher clues that unravel one of the world’s biggest mysteries. An online/offline interactive event, VANISHED is an eight-week episodic quest that will transform you into principal scientific investigators who must collaborate to find the answers. You will race against time as you solve games, puzzles, and other online challenges; visit real museums; collect samples from in and around your homes; and even partner with some of the Smithsonian’s world renowned scientists and investigators, to help unlock the true secrets of this catastrophe—before it’s too late.
In Moonbase Alpha, you assume the exciting role of an astronaut working to further human expansion and research. Returning from a research expedition, you witness a meteorite impact that cripples the life support capability of the settlement. With precious minutes ticking away, you and your team must repair and replace equipment in order to restore the oxygen production to the settlement. Moonbase Aplha has been designed to engage students in STEM concepts. NASA has many resources available to support Moonbase Alpha including virtual labs and planetery learning suites.
Suitable for: Grade 5 - Year 11
Save Planet Helios from ecological devastation! PowerUp is a free, online, multiplayer game that allows students to experience the excitement and the diversity of modern engineering! Playing the game, students work together in teams to investigate the rich, 3D game environment and learn about the environmental disasters that threaten the game world and its inhabitants. PowerUp also offers extensive resources to help educators incorporate the game into teaching and learning.
Suitable for: Grade 5 - Year 11
You must navigate a nanobot through a 3D environment of blood vessels and connective tissue in an attempt to save an ailing patient by retraining her non-functional immune cells. Along the way, you will learn about the biological processes that enable macrophages and neutrophils – white blood cells – to detect and fight infections.
Suitable for: Grade 3 - Year 10
Resources: Teacher Guide - http://www.fas.org/immuneattack/teachersguide
This easy to use similation game can provide learning about the interdependence of plants and animals in an environment.Suitable for: Grade 3 - Year 9
Resources: The Enabling Support Foundation - http://www.enabling.org/drupal/node/130
Biome Bazaar - http://www.educationworld.com/a_tsl/archives/00-2/lesson0021.shtml
SimFarm puts players in charge of building up the land, placing the buildings, buying and selling livestock and planting crops. A weather and season system are in place as well, presenting the same kind of challenges found in a real-world farm. As with SimCity, there are disasters that can wreak havoc on the player's farm. The game package also included a teachers guide to teaching with Sim Farm with black line masters for photo copying for the class and a users manual.Suitable for: Grade 3 - Year 9
Resources: SimFarm Educator resources -
www.naaee.org/npeee/**SimFarm**v1.pdf
The objective of SimCity, as the name of the game suggests, is to build and design a city, without specific goals to achieve. The player can mark land as being zoned as commercial, industrial, or residential, add buildings, change the tax rate, build a power grid, build transportation systems and take many other actions, in order to enhance the city.
Suitable for: Grade 3 - Year 10
Resources: SimCity3000 Teacher Guide - http://classes.uleth.ca/200203/educ3508mn1/Resource/SimCity/SimCity.doc
Further Teaching Guide - http://www.brainmeld.org/TeachingGuideLibrary/
Sim City Classroom Project - http://simcity-project.wikispaces.com/
The Incredible Machine is a wacky invention/puzzle game that lets you construct cause and effect contraptions with working pulleys, levers, conveyor belts, motors, balloons and more. Use your creative ingenuity to construct a variety of different machines that create specified effects.
Suitable for: Grade 3 - Year 10
Resources: Incredible Machine 2 - http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/395/Incredible+Machine+2,+The.html
Incredible Machine 3 - http://www.soft25.com/review.asp?id=4146
Electric Box is a puzzle game that could be used in teaching electricity and electric power. The premise is simple - connect power from the power supply to the set target.
Suitable for: Grade 5 - Year 9
RollerCoaster Tycoon is a simulation/strategy game that includes an accurate physics engine.
Suitable for: Grade 5 - Year 10
Resources: Science of RollerCoaster's - http://www.learningplace.com.au/deliver/content.asp?pid=42826
It is designed to teach high school students about biology including photosynthesis, respiration, transcription and translation.
Genomics Digital Lab was designed to be easily used in the classroom, and provides teachers with lesson plans, curriculum alignments, quizzes, worksheets. Teachers can also monitor their students’ progress online, in real-time.
Suitable for: Year 7 - 12
Resources: Teaching with GDL - http://www.vivetechnologies.com/gdl/teaching.html
Foldit is an experimental video game about protein folding, developed as a collaboration between the University of Washington's departments of Computer Science and Engineering and Biochemistry . This game provides a chance for students to contribute to real scientific research.
Suitable for: Year 9 -12
Resources: The Science Behind Foldit - http://fold.it/portal/info/science
Design a Virtual Bridge and learn about Civil Engineering. This bridge designer software is free for download. It is probably the most comprehensive and realistic software freely available. Students can learn many aspects of forces, material properties and design loads.
Suitable for: Year 9 - 12
Resources: West Point Bridge Design Contest - http://bridgecontest.usma.edu/
A game for middle schoolers learning chemistry and the properties of elements. Players select elements and strategies to equip their mechs with armor, batteries, capacitors and weapons, and then battle the Mechs to see which is the stronger.
Suitable for: Year 7-10
Racing Academy is a racing game built on an advanced physics simulation engine intended to support an online community of learners’ increased familiarity with engineering concepts. For educational purposes, the game's physics are as true-to-life as possible (as opposed to being optimized for the fun of the game.)
Suitable for: Grade 5 - Year 11
The game places students in a three dimensional enviroment where they must navigate a spaceship by controlling the electric charge of the ship, placing charged particles around the space. Students must carefully plan their trajectory through each level by tracing the field lines that emmanate from charged objects, and in the process of doing so, develop a more hands on understanding of how charged particles interact.
Suitable for: Year 9-12
Resources: Learning Physics with Digital Simulation Games - http://www.educationarcade.org/files/articles/Supercharged/SuperchargedResearch.pdf
A program of standards-based online science games and other activities.
Suitable for: Grades 3-5.
Resources: Kinetic City Teacher Resources - http://www.kcmtv.com/
Discover that size really matters in NanoQuest, an epic 3D adventure through the tiny world of nanotechnology. The new version includes the Virus Attack Bonus Game which takes Jack and Orla on an adventure inside an animal cell.
Suitable for: Grade 5 - Year 10
Resources: Teacher Resources - http://www.nanoquest.ie/teach.html
MOONSHIELD is a managerial and technological strategy game, which propels the player into the near future, where he must use THALES technologies to defend and protect the Earth from a wash of meteorites that is threatening civilisation.
Suitable for: Grade 5 - Year 9
JASON games and digital labs are designed with the practical realties of the classroom in mind. Teachers can search for games and labs by state standards in the JASON Mission Center Web site, where you will also find worksheets and handouts. Games include Operation: Resilient Planet, Coaster Creator, StormTracker and a host of other mini labs.
Suitable for: Grade 5 - Year 11
Resources: Curriculum Guides - http://www.jason.org/public/whatis/curr.aspx
CityOne offers players the opportunity to optimize banking, retail, energy and water solutions via an online, sim-style game in which the player is tasked with guiding industries within a city through a series of missions. Players will make decisions to improve the city by attaining revenue and profit goals, increasing customers’ and citizens’ satisfaction, and making the environment greener with a limited budget. In parallel, players will learn how the components of business process management, service reuse, cloud and collaborative technologies make organizations in the city system more agile.
Suitable for: Year 7-12
Spread your parasites in this fast pace, strategy game. The goal is to overtake all other parasites and become the "Dominant Species". Learn to master each parasite effectively and infect all forms of cellular life.
Suitable for: Grade 5 - Year 11
Resources: Phage Wars 2 - http://armorgames.com/play/4013/phage-wars-2
Anatomy Arcade makes basic human anatomy come ALIVE through awesome free flash games, interactives and videos.
Anatomy Arcade is perfect for the novice teenager in the classroom, right through to students and professionals of health care looking for a fun way to revise.
Suitable for: Grade 5 - Year 11
A series of games to teach about binary numbers and all things associated with computer networking.
Suitable for: Year 9-12
A host of great games here including Waker. Waker is a puzzle/platform game set in the world of a child's broken dream. As the Waker, the player uses both mind and reflexes to solve puzzles, creating platforms to form a safe path through the dream worlds. Forming the paths, however, is the trick - it is up to the player to figure out how to create each path, and to manipulate the Waker and the world to travel safely through each level.Both use identical gameplay to expose players to two basic physics concepts, requiring players to manipulate the graphical representations of displacement and velocity in order to navigate through the game.
Suitable for: All ages
Build a cell, fight off viruses, survive harsh worlds, and save the Platypus species!
This game was made possible by a grant from the Digital Media & Learning Competition. The goal was to make a truly educational game that was also genuinely fun to play. We hope students, teachers, and gamers will all enjoy the game, and encourage you to visit www.cellcraftgame.com, which will soon have an open forum and eventually downloadable teacher materials.
Suitable for: Year 7 - 12
The Powder Toy is a Physics simulator designed to give students a better understanding of how substances and elements react with each other and to other comounds or heat.
Suitable for: Grade 1 - Year 8
Resources: Cheat codes - http://www.cheatbook.de/files/powdergame.htm
This is LEGO Digital Designer. The program that lets you build with LEGO bricks on your computer.
Suitable for: All ages
An online Physics puzzle game
Transformice is a multiplayer flash game created by Melibellule and Tigrounette, where you control a mouse whose goal is to try and return with the cheese faster than all of the other mice. You are assisted by a (point based) Shaman, who has the ability to summon various physics-based objects to help the mice get the cheese and get back safely.
Sometimes the best way to understand what engineers do is to try your hand at it! The following several engineering games give you a first hand try at the problem solving skills engineers employ every day!
Suitable for: All ages
Cool-it is an interactive learning game teaching about cryogenics.
Cool-It is a simulation game that teaches the principles of heat transfer in cryogenic situations in a graduate-level engineering course.
This game places the student in the role of a mechanical engineer solving real world design problems for the US navy and NASA. Success and Failure are the difference between life and death!
Suitable for: Year 10-12
A nice list of science simulations - from physics to biology.
Suitable for: All ages
Simulation
A great list of science games covering all curriculum areas.
Suitable for: All ages
A collection of mini games that explore the science and engineering of wood.
Suitable for: All ages
A nice collection of mini games covering all areas of science
Suitable for: All ages
GATSCAR is a unique tool for mechatronic engineers apprenticeship. It is a Serious Game that makes automotive mechatronics come alive! Through the eyes of the central character Jack the user experiences a digital car workshop, a world of racing and friendship. By explaining turbochargers and transmissions interactively, GATSCAR easily combines gaming with learning.
Suitable for: Year 7-12
The Powder Toy is a desktop version of the classic 'falling sand' physics sandbox game, it simulates air pressure and velocity as well as heat!
Suitable for: Year 7-12
History of Biology is an interactive, online science scavenger hunt where students experience the history of biology, through the people and the impact their discoveries had on, and continues to have on, our culture, society, politics, economics, and ethics.
Suitable for: Year 7-12
With this interactive, build an animal, plant, bacterial and fungal cell and watch it come alive! Explore the similarities and differences of the cells all at once. Learn about each organelle and apply your knowledge through real life case studies.
Suitable for: Year 7-12
Learn about the history of biology, people and events, and the impact discoveries have had on society, ethics, politics and culture, then and now - through a fun, interactive scavenger hunt!
Become a science assistant and navigate through a labyrinth of clues, objects, and internet sites to figure out why Dr. Shyre, a renowned scientist, has disappeared. Hidden among the real historical events in biology, find clues and unlock puzzles to find the secrets of his most important and controversial research ever.
Suitable for: Year 7-12
In Power of Research players can engage in "virtual" health research projects, by performing microscopy, protein isolation and DNA experiments, publishing research results, participating in conferences, managing high tech equipment and staff or request funding – all tasks of real researchers. The decisive game elements are communication, collaboration and competition: players can compete against each other in real time or collaborate to become a successful virtual researcher, win scientific awards or become the leader of a research institute.
Suitable for: Year 9-12
Includes the Soda Constructor, a Java applet that animates two dimensional models made out of masses and springs.
Suitable for: All ages
Enigmo 2 is a 3D puzzle game where you construct mechanisms to direct lasers, plasma, and water to toggle switches, deactivate force-fields, and eventually get them to their final destination. The original Enigmo was the most unique game that Pangea Software ever created, and Enigmo 2 takes the concept to a whole new dimension with much more complex environments and all-new devices. The faster you complete each of the 50 levels, the more bonus points you will receive!
In addition to the 50 levels that come with Enigmo, there is also a built-in level editor which allows you to create your own games that you can share with friends or post on the web for the world to play.
Suitable for: All ages
The purpose of the lab is to familiarize you with the science and techniques used to identify different types of bacteria based on their DNA sequence. Not long ago, DNA sequencing was a time-consuming, tedious process. With readily available commercial equipment and kits, it is now routine. The techniques used in this lab are applicable in a wide variety of settings, including scientific research and forensic labs.
Suitable for: Year 11&12
Resources: HHMI Virtual Labs -
http://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/vlabs/
The CSI Web Adventure will put you in the shoes of a rookie crime scene invesitgator. You will need the help of fellow CSI agents.
Suitable for: Grade 5 - Year 9
A collection of mini-games related to diferent areas of science
Suitable for: All ages
In this physic based platformer, you can interact with the world however you want. Join Ozee in his jurney and explore exciting land of puzzles.
Suitable for: All ages
Plasma Pong is a mesmerizing freeware title by Steve Taylor, a student at George Mason University. It combines a cutting-edge realtime fluid dynamics simulation with the game structure of pong.
Remove the red shapes without the green ones falling off the screen. This starts out easy but after level 10 things get a little more interesting…
Suitable for: All ages
Resources: Red Remover 2 - http://www.redremover2.com/
Science Pirates: The Curse of Brownbeard is a 3D educational computer game that communicates food safety knowledge in an environment of scientific exploration.
Suitable for: Grade 5 - 9
Titanium Chef has been designed to help you teach about Food Guide's to your students. It's a Flash-based online game developed specifically for Canadian children in grades 6 to 8.
Resources: Teacher Materials - http://titaniumchef.ca/en/pages/for-teachers/
This arcade is a portal to games and interactive activities focused on ocean and air themes. It highlights the science and the activities of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and other agencies and organizations promoting environmental stewardship.
AstroEngineer: Moon Rover is the first of what will be a suite of games to teach STEM content to Middle School and High School students in both formal and informal learning environments.
A great collection of science simulations covering biology, physics, chemistry, geology, astronomy, anatomy and much more!
Suitable for: All ages
The prairie is one of North America's great ecosystems and a vital habitat for many plants and animals. Over 98% of the prairie has been lost in the past 150 years—but some people are trying to bring it back, hectare by hectare. Restoring a prairie is a great challenge, requiring knowlege of biology, ecology, climatology, and even economics.
Suitable for: All ages
You Make Me Sick! is a rich, interactive introduction to the exciting world of pathogens. YMMS! is first in a series of life science games we are developing with special education expert Dr. Matthew Marino of Washington State University. All the games in the series combine Universal Design for Learning concepts with research-based game design principles to improve students' understanding of complex science vocabulary and concepts. While the UDL features support students with learning disabilities and others who struggle with reading, the game is engaging, motivating, and effective for all students.
Suitable for: All ages
DESQ is a leading producer of interactive learning content for public sector, broadcast, corporate and educational publishing clients. We design and develop compelling and robust courses, games and training materials.
Resources: DoomED - Half-Life 2 mod (chemistry/science)
http://www.desq.co.uk/doomed/download.aspx
Jimirock.com is an "edutainment" platform, teaching children about marine biology on an introductory level while combining the learning experience with a fun and entertaining theme that will aspire to compete with the most popular children's online entertainment sites in the world. Many parents actively seek out ways to educate their children on issues surrounding the ocean and ecology. Jimi Rock will give these children an interactive platform filled with games and activities designed to increase their knowledge of aquatic life.
Are you ready to question reality? Join Alice & Bob in nine fun-filled, animated adventures as they wonder about the world around us. Discover with them that it is sometimes the simplest questions that lead us to the most profound insights into the nature of our amazing universe. Be forewarned - these episodes may turn some of your ideas of reality upside down!
Mini-games for physics. A nice collection.
While having fun fulfilling these missions, the player learns the concepts of elementary particles such as leptons and quarks, the composition of hadrons (mainly protons and neutrons), the concept of color charge and the strong interaction that occurs between mesons and baryons, the decay particles and notions of a subatomic scale. It is worth mentioning that this game was developed in Brazil, sponsored by SPRACE and with financial support from CNPq through the announcement of the "Project Support for Dissemination and Popularization of Science and Technology." The game was produced by the Brazilian Consultancy Company Summa Technology Business and developed by Black Widow Games Brazil.
This activity is based on the "Acids and Aliens" activity from the book Of Cabbages and Chemistry, published by Great Explorations in Math and Science (GEMS). Of Cabbages and Chemistry is an engaging series of science activities for grades 4-8 that enables students to explore the properties of acids and bases using red cabbage juice.
Portal: The Flash Version includes over 40 challenging, portals thinking levels, and everything's included, in 2d - energy balls, cubes, turrets and even the famous crusher from the trailer. The game also includes a console to mess around with after finishing the game, or just being frustrated by thinking with portals! Inspired by Valve's popular Portal game, this has links and application to a host of mathematical and physical concepts.
Suitable for: All Ages
Resources:
http://www.generationcures.org/education
SpaceChem is an obscenely addictive, design-based puzzle game about building machines and fighting monsters in the name of science! Take on the role of a Reactor Engineer working for SpaceChem, the leading chemical synthesizer for frontier colonies. Construct elaborate factories to transform raw materials into valuable chemical products! Streamline your designs to meet production quotas and survive encounters with the sinister threats that plague SpaceChem.
Suitable for: All ages
Auditorium challenges you to manipulate the flow of light to illuminate a series of sensors. You are helped in your task by tools that allow you to bend and split the light beams. The graphics and inspired music make this a browser gaming experience not to be missed. You will have to pay to play the full game but the demo we link to offers a good few hours of entertainment. Auditorium can be played here.
Suitable for: All ages
Aubital is an atmospheric cross between a physics game and a platformer. You roll an illuminated ball around darkly lit levels, trying to open doors and ascend elevators, with the intention of getting to the exit.
Suitable for: All ages
Build your own robot by drawing wheels, motors, joints etc, and then pilot your robot through hundreds of challenges.
A gravity-based physics game that explores the concepts of gravity in different situations.
How can you motivate students to really learn their subjects - and actually use them as well? Ludwig is a new physics game on the topic of renewable energies for adventurers aged 11 years and older.
Planet Hunters, the latest project from the Zooniverse, is a citizen science project. Participants help us sieve through data taken by the NASA Kepler space mission. These data consist of brightness measurements, or "light curves," taken every thirty minutes for more than 150,000 stars. Users search for possible transit events - a brief dip in brightness that occurs when a planet passes in front of the star - with the goal of discovering a planet (hence the name "Planet Hunters").
Suitable for: Physics/Science classes of all ages
Students take on the role of scientists working in modern drug development, taking a new drug through clinical trials to assess its effectiveness in treating tuberculosis. The game is structured to enable groupwork in the classroom, collaborative problem solving and discussion, and gives the teacher a central role as a ‘learning croupier’, enabling a variety of teaching methods and lesson plans to be used, in exploring what it means to be a scientist.
Four interactive games (SimEnergy1, SimEnergy2, SimSpace, SimSound) are now available to use in your teaching of energy and space to 13-16 year olds. These games are designed to help students to engage with the physics they need to use to solve problems and win the games.Resources: Teaching notes & Lesson Plans - http://www.iop.org/education/teacher/resources/sim/page_41572.html
DoomEd is a single-player Half-Life 2 mod, first-person shooter learning game that combines science and history with FPS action, taking players through the horror of bio-terrorism and WW2 chemical experimentation gone wrong. A project by the University of Wolverhampton.
A game about programming robots to solve particular challenges.
Suitable for: All ages
Deep within the membrane of a giant egg, an ancient and dangerous creature lies dormant - a dragon!
Learn about genetic inheritance as you breed dragon species, complete phenotype missions and meet monstrous creatures in a cloud-hopping sky world! Become the dragon master by breeding all types of dragons.
Suitable for:
The ClearLab Game Arcade uses the Sandstone service to deliver games to your browser and is currently in beta. Includes games Slot Car Physics, Atomic Hero, Cell Saver and Factor Madness.
Suitable for: All ages
Become a famous researcher in "Power of Research." Research different topics through exciting research projects. Gain special skills and knowledge in nine different main research areas (like Brain, Paediatrics, ...). Become a leader in your institute and lead it to international ranks. The game is 100% free and needs no prior knowledge
An adventure game about alcohol and body systems. Funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
Mission Biotech is an immersive, computer-based game that offers players opportunities to solve challenging problems through the application of biotechnology.
Resources:
Teacher Materials available at
http://missionbiotech.com/Teacher.aspx
An interactive learning adventure, with accompanying classroom activities and magazines, that teaches microbiology. Funded through the National Center for Research Resources and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
Three independent adventure games that teach about the science behind drugs of abuse. Funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Jessie and her friends need your help! They have become very sick with a foodborne illness and you've been asked to solve the outbreak! What pathogen did they contract? Which food was the culprit? And where did these teens go wrong when they made food for their dinner party?
A team of characters including a doctor, epidemiologist, librarian, and Jessie herself will help you along the way. Collect and test samples, make notes, and test your knowledge.
The goal of the Science Game Center is to demonstrate to teachers, scientists, museums, and parents the myriad ways games can be used to improve education in math and science. The Science Game Center will provide a place where users can describe their experiences with math and science games, gather information on game strengths and weaknesses, and share tips on how to use games to help students reach their educational goals.
RumbleBlocks is an educational game designed to teach K-3 students about the physics of building stable structures. The game was built by a collaborative team of educational researchers and entertainment technology design students at Carnegie Mellon University and Sesame Workshop.
The game teaches basic concepts of stability and balance, as well as engineering and problem-solving skills, that come from the National Research Council’s framework for K-12 Science education and the ASSET Science curricular units on stability and motion.
Suitable for: K-3
airECONsim is a "long" market game for teaching industrial organization. It highlights microeconomics notions such as marginal/average cost, variable/sunk costs, short run/long run costs, price elasticity of demand, demand shocks, impact of production capacity on price competition, oligopoly/monopoly and the logic behind competition, price discrimination, ... (also includes advanced features such as auctions for capacity or CO2 permits, mergers and takeovers, differentiation, ...)
Suitable for: K-10 and above
This site offers several free multiplayer online games for teaching economics (market games, prisoner's dilemma, public goods, Cournot and Stackelberg....). The scenario of the main game is described in this pedagogical guide
Students play with their smartphones, tablets or laptops.
Suitable for: K-10 and above